The Beginnings of Blue Palms Brew House: How Brian Lenzo and Better Beer Became BFFs

Three years ago the Brian Lenzo helped bring the Blue Palms Brew House to Hollywood, bringing better beer to a city notorious for lacking quality bubbles. Come August 13 the restaurant and bar will celebrate its anniversary in true Lenzo fashion: a huge outdoor beer garden complete with special beer releases, cow legs to gnaw on, live music, and a very epic, beloved dunk tank. We sat down and talked to Lenzo about his humble beginnings and how his fine dining background helped change people’s perspective on beer.

Excitable Boy, They All Said

Lenzo is undoubtedly a fixture in the L.A. craft beer scene (in case it hasn’t been pounded into your brain yet, beer here has been taking off lately). He regularly hosts special beer nights and fests, like the upcoming Flip Flop Fest on July 30 featuring a Pizza Port beer 24-tap takeover. It’s not uncommon to see the beer elite gather at this bar, whether it’s Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson or Stone Brewing Co. CEO Greg Koch. Lenzo is also one of the four heads behind those ColLAboration pop-up craft beer gardens that have made summer in Los Angeles loads more delicious. Behind his jovial, intense, excitable personality is a Lenzo that takes his beer very seriously.

If You Pour It, They Will Come

Drink Eat Travel: How did you get into restaurant business?

Brian Lenzo: I started when I was 14. Before I went to school in the morning, I rode my bike to a local restaurant in Ohio. I washed dishes from five to eight in the morning. After school I went into the Marine Corps, I started working in a restaurant called Joe Alexander’s in Nashville. My passion for the restaurant business just grew.

DET: Did you cook in the Marine Corps at all?

Lenzo: We had mess and maintenance training for two weeks, so we had to. It was a little different there. It wasn’t exactly where I found my passion for cooking. But when I got into the corporate restaurant scene with Joe Alexander’s, they’re all about quality and following recipes and making everything perfect time. I had always wanted to live in Los Angeles, so after seven years in Nashville I opened up a restaurant here in Los Angeles with a couple other guys.

Gabe [Gabriel Gordon] was actually the chef at the restaurant that I started working at and started managing. I met Gabe in the original Blue Palms which was on La Cienega. Gabe is just an unbelievable Italian chef. I think he was one of the top five chefs in LA when he was 26. I was always at the front of the restaurant and Gabe was always at the back. Our work ethic together was perfect and we became the best of friends.

Years down the road we ended up moving that restaurant to here. Gabe was the chef here and I ran the Music Box. In fact, he set up the kitchen here, and I later went and bought it. He and I later opened a restaurant called Royal Palades downtown, and that’s where we really found our passion for craft beer. We were trying to fill a niche. Gabe had really eclectic, cool food. We didn’t have our niche downtown, though. It was in a really downtrodden area. At the time, five years ago, when we opened it up, there were still tents all over the place. We needed a niche. So Jay Baum and Joe Corona came in and brought two coolers full of beer. I mean, we were wine geeks, but once we started tasting the beer, we just knew that this is what we had to do.

DET: Did you know Jay before then?

Lenzo: We knew him a little bit, but we didn’t have a lot of interest in beer at the time. We were more interested in wine, but our eyes were opened to beer and what it can do with food and what it could do with our restaurant. You know, people can get Miller anywhere, but we wanted to have a reason for people to want to drive to our restaurant.

DET: Which beers did you start out with?

Lenzo: Great White was on tap, some Firestone beers, most of the more mainstream craft beers. We didn’t know a lot about craft beer back then.

DET: Was Firestone a very popular brewery then?

Lenzo: Well, Gabe and I had Firestone at the Music Box when we ran it, but I didn’t really get into craft beer at the time. Firestone used to only deliver within a 100-mile radius of their brewery back then, so most people couldn’t get things like their Reserve Porter. I was buying so much Firestone beer that it was blowing the company’s mind! People loved it.

DET: So people were receptive to it then?

Lenzo: They were starting to be, because Gabe and I took an approach to serving it similar to wine. I would take beers to people’s tables and pour it just like wine. We wanted to show people that craft beer was something different and a show them a new approach. Our partner didn’t think that craft beer was the way to go though, and she owned the majority of the company. She wanted Stella and Newcastle, so Gabe and I decided to split.

DET: Have you seen your clients’ tastes change?

Lenzo: Absolutely. More than I could ever imagine. When we opened, nobody had any idea of what craft beer was. There weren’t enough beer geeks in L.A. for us to live off of to begin with. We changed our policy to one of education, where we show clients new and different beers that were different from the more popular big breweries, like Coors and Budweiser. Once people get into craft beer, they tend not to leave! It was a good experience for us, since very few people knew about craft beer to begin with, so we were able to grow and learn with the community. It’s so nice to see the area now, since it was kind of a ghost town when we opened.

DET: You talked once before about how you and Gabe use tap lines that are different than those at other bars. Can you tell us about it?

Lenzo: Gabe’s an amazing guy. His mind never stops. Usually when you have a beer line, it’s a nitrogen line, usually with Guinness or something. Gabe’s idea was to use different gasses for each line, so if you need a more carbonated beer, you can use more nitrogen, or you can use other gases for different kegs. Most craft brewers don’t have the kind of technology to make beer batches the same every time, like Budweiser or Miller might, so our different carbonation levels give us lots of room to play with kegs.

DET: Thanks Brian, and congrats!

Party Down, Maybe Even for Free

The Blue Palms 3rd Anniversary Party is on August 13, 2011 12 – 8 PM. Tickets are $45 for 10 5 oz. pours in a Blue Palms logo glass.  Check back Monday August 1, for our giveaway, where you will be able to enter for a chance to win admission.

Brian Talks About Last Year’s Party

Brian Talks About Blue Palms Brewhouse Turning Three Years Old

Where?
6124 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Hours:
Sunday 12 PM – 12 AM
Monday 5  PM – 12 AM
Tuesday – Thursday, Saturday 5 PM – 2 AM
Friday 11:30 AM – 2 AM

Additional information:
Blue Palms Brew House | Twitter | Facebook

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